Suicide and infanticide in early child and family support

Sadly, this is a social reality. But we might be able to help

In September this year the Manchester Evening News (a local UK paper) reported that Martina Karos and Eleni Edwards, her daughter, had been found dead in their home. No one else was involved in the deaths and there were no suspicious circumstances. Eleni had disabilities and was much loved.

Parental desperation is common in my experience, not because a disabled child is a tragedy but often because a parent lives with loneliness and isolation with nowhere to turn to and no optimism for the future. Suicide and infanticide can happen, but rarely.

So for me, these deaths are the tip of a mountain. Many early child and family support practitioners in many countries will share my experience of being told by a parent their work with the family is a life-saver. It is not a technical issue, just one human being supporting another. All it takes is a listening ear, empathy, time and genuine caring - life-saving support in the right place at the right time.

The life-saving practitioner might be a nurse, doctor, therapist, play worker, teacher, social worker or keyworker. In the 1990s we were certainly aware of these issues with families as keyworkers in the voluntary organisation, One Hundred Hours. So I have met families like Martina and Karos and, incidentally, worked in Salford where they lived.

I wish I could send Martina and Eleni's names out into the wide world in happier circumstances.

Peter Limbrick, October 2024.

Also see ‘When a mother kills her disabled children’ (December 2014)

https://www.tacinterconnections.com/index.php/allnews/developmentsintreatment/1751-when-a-mother-kills-her-disabled-children?highlight=WyJzdWljaWRlIl0=

The Keyworker: https://www.tacinterconnections.com/index.php/allnews/publications/3876-the-keyworker-a-practical-guide-in-family-support

One Hundred Hours: https://www.tacinterconnections.com/index.php/allnews/publications/3873-when-the-bough-breaks-an-independent-survey-into-families-perceptions-of-one-hundred-hours-keyworker-service-1994-free-pdf